Literary and historical notes of a young technician

Bulgakov Mikhail - the beginning of the Path

In 1909, Mikhail Bulgakov graduated from the First Kyiv

The choice of becoming a doctor was explained by the fact that both mother’s brothers, Nikolai and Mikhail Pokrovsky, were doctors, one in Moscow, the other in Warsaw, both earned good money. Mikhail, a therapist, was Patriarch Tikhon’s doctor, Nikolai, a gynecologist, had an excellent practice in Moscow.

Bulgakov studied at the university for 7 years - having been exempted for health reasons (kidney failure), he submitted a report to serve as a doctor in the navy and, after the refusal of the medical commission, asked to be sent as a Red Cross volunteer to the hospital.

October 31, 1916 - received a diploma confirming “the degree of doctor with honors with all the rights and benefits, laws Russian Empire awarded this degree."

A photograph that was called “Misha the Doctor” in the family. 1912

After the outbreak of World War I, M. Bulgakov worked as a doctor in the front-line zone for several months. Then he was sent to work in the village of Nikolskoye, Smolensk province, after which he worked as a doctor in Vyazma.

Since 1917, M. A. Bulgakov began to use morphine, first in order to alleviate allergic reactions to the anti-diphtheria drug, which he took out of fear of diphtheria after the operation. Then the morphine intake became regular.

In December 1917, M. A. Bulgakov came to Moscow for the first time. He stayed with his uncle, the famous Moscow gynecologist N. M. Pokrovsky, who became the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky from the story “ Heart of a Dog».

In the spring of 1918, M. A. Bulgakov returned to Kyiv, where he began private practice as a venereologist - at this time he stopped using morphine.

During Civil War, in February 1919, M. Bulgakov was mobilized as a military doctor in the Ukrainian army People's Republic. Then, judging by his memoirs, he was mobilized into the white Armed Forces of the South of Russia and was appointed military doctor of the 3rd Terek Cossack Regiment. That same year, he worked as a Red Cross doctor, and then again in the Whites. Armed Forces ah South of Russia. As part of the 3rd Terek Cossack Regiment he was in the North Caucasus. Published in newspapers (article “Future Prospects”). During the retreat of the Volunteer Army at the beginning of 1920, he was sick with typhus and therefore was forced not to leave the country

Bulgakov Mikhail - three beloved women in life.

“Find Tasya, I must apologize to her,” whispered a terminally ill man into the ear of his sister bending over him. The wife stood in the corner of the room, trying her best to hold back the tears that were coming.

Mikhail Bulgakov died hard. It was hard to believe that this exhausted man was once a slender, blue-eyed young man who later became a great writer. A lot happened in Bulgakov’s life - there were dizzying ups and times of lack of money, dazzling beauties loved him, he knew many outstanding people of that time. But before his death, he remembered only his first love - the woman with whom he treated him badly. in the best possible way and the guilt before which he wanted to atone - about Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa.

Family test

...SUMMER in Kyiv. Walking along the embankment beautiful couples, carved chestnut leaves are swaying, the air is filled with some unknown, but very pleasant aromas, and after provincial Saratov it seems that you have found yourself at a fairy-tale ball. This is exactly how 16-year-old Tatyana Lappa remembered her visit to her Kyiv aunt in 1908. “I’ll introduce you to the boy, he’ll show you the city,” the aunt said to her young niece.

Tanya and Mikhail were ideal for each other - they were the same age, both from good families(Tatiana’s father was the manager of the Saratov Treasury Chamber, and Mikhail was from the family of a professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy), so it is not surprising that tender feelings quickly flared up between the young people.

When the holidays ended and Tanya went back to Saratov, the lovers continued to correspond and maintain a relationship, much to the displeasure of their families. The parents could be understood - Bulgakov’s mother was alarmed that her son had abandoned his studies at the university, and Tatyana’s parents did not really like the telegram sent by Bulgakov’s friend. “Telegraph the arrival by deception. Misha is shooting himself,” read the telegram that arrived at Lapp’s house after Tatiana’s parents did not let Tatyana go to Kyiv for the holidays.

But, as usual, obstacles only fueled the feelings of the lovers, and already in 1911 Bulgakov went to Saratov to meet his future father-in-law and mother-in-law. In 1913, the parents finally came to terms with the wishes of their children (by that time Tatyana had already become pregnant and had an abortion) and gave their consent to the marriage.

They stood in front of the altar, beautiful and happy. And neither of them could penetrate the seriousness of the moment - both were constantly tempted to laugh. “How they suit each other in their careless nature!” - Bulgakov’s sister Vera once said about the young lovers, and I must say that at that moment it was true truth. However, over time, not a trace remained of the former carelessness.

Trial by war

Test of Glory

For the sake of Lyubov Belozerskaya, Bulgakov destroyed his marriage with Tatyana Lappa

In the fall of 1921, the couple moved to Moscow. A severe struggle for survival began. Bulgakov wrote “The White Guard” at night, Tatyana sat nearby, regularly handing her husband basins of hot water to warm his frozen hands. The efforts were not in vain - after a few years, Bulgakov the writer became fashionable. But family life gave a crack. Tatyana was not too interested in her husband’s literary research and, as a writer’s wife, seemed too inconspicuous. Although Bulgakov assured Tatyana that he would never leave her, he warned: “If you meet me on the street with a lady, I will pretend that I don’t know you.” At that time, Bulgakov actively flirted with fans.

But Bulgakov never kept his promise to never leave Tatyana. 11 years after the wedding, he offered her a divorce. The role of the homewrecker was played by Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, a 29-year-old lady with a rich biography, who recently arrived from abroad. She had just separated from one husband and was planning to marry another, but it didn’t work out. So the affair with Bulgakov came in very handy. And Bulgakov liked her sophistication, love of literature, sharp tongue and secular gloss. At first, Mikhail offered Tatyana the three of them to live in their apartment (the third, of course, was supposed to be Belozerskaya), but, having met a stubborn refusal, he packed his things and left.

About selling your soul

It is known that Bulgakov often went to Bolshoi Theater to listen to "Faust". This opera always lifted his spirits. The image of Faust himself was especially close to him.

But one day Bulgakov returned from the theater gloomy, in a state of severe depression. This was connected with a work on which the writer recently began working - the play "Batum". Bulgakov, who agreed to write a play about Stalin, recognized himself in the image of Faust, who sold his soul to the devil.

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Missing Character

In 1937, on the anniversary of the death of A.S. Pushkin, several authors presented plays dedicated to the poet. Among them was M. A. Bulgakov’s play “Alexander Pushkin,” which was distinguished from the works of other authors by the absence of one character. Bulgakov believed that the appearance of this actor on stage it will be vulgar and tasteless. The missing character was Alexander Sergeevich himself.

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Treasure of Mikhail Bulgakov

As is known, in the novel " White Guard"Bulgakov quite accurately described the house in which he lived in Kyiv. And the owners of this house for one detail of the description very strongly disliked the writer, since it caused direct damage to the structure. The fact is that the owners broke all the walls, trying to find the treasure described in the novel, and, of course, they found nothing.

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Few people know that the novel "The Master and Margarita" was dedicated to the writer’s beloved Elena Sergeevna Nuremberg.

It was his last love and the strongest, she brought a lot of suffering and happiness to both. By the time they met, they already had families that had to be destroyed in order to forever unite their destinies by marriage.

Bulgakov began writing “The Master and Margarita” in 1929, and seven years earlier he was given Alexander Chayanov’s book “Venediktov, or Memorable Events of My Life.”

Its main characters were Satan and a student named Bulgakov, who fights with him for the soul of the woman he loves, and in the end the lovers are united. According to the writer’s wife Lyubov Belozerskaya, Chayanov’s story served as a creative impetus for writing the novel “The Master and Margarita.”

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Woland's story

Bulgakov's Woland received his name from Goethe's Mephistopheles. In the poem "Faust" it sounds

just one

times when Mephistopheles asks evil spirits step aside and give him way: “Nobleman Woland is coming!” In the ancient German literature The devil was called by another name - Faland. It also appears in “The Master and Margarita”, when the variety show employees cannot remember the name of the magician: “...Perhaps Faland?”

The first edition of the work contained detailed description(15 handwritten pages) will accept Woland when he first appears under the guise of a “stranger”. This description is now almost completely lost. In addition, in the early edition Woland's name was Astaroth (one of the highest-ranking demons of hell, according to Western demonology). Later Bulgakov replaced it, apparently because this image could not be identical to Satan.

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"Heart of a Dog" and the Russian Revolution

Traditionally, the story “Heart of a Dog” is interpreted in only one political key: Sharikov is an allegory of the lumpen proletariat, who unexpectedly received many rights and freedoms, but quickly discovered selfishness and a desire to destroy their own kind. However, there is another interpretation, as if this story was a political satire on the leadership of the state in the mid-1920s.

In particular, that Sharikov-Chugunkin is Stalin (both have an “iron” second name), prof. Preobrazhensky is Lenin (who transformed the country), his assistant Dr. Bormental, constantly in conflict with Sharikov, is Trotsky (Bronstein), Shvonder is Kamenev, assistant Zina is Zinoviev, Daria is Dzerzhinsky, etc.

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Behemoth prototype

The famous assistant Woland had a real prototype, only in life he was not a cat at all, but a dog - Mikhail Afanasyevich’s black dog named Behemoth. This dog was very smart. One day, when Bulgakov was celebrating with his wife New Year, after the chimes, his dog barked 12 times, although no one taught it this.

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Bulgakov Mikhail - family and childhood.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov - world literary genius, was also a great doctor, a master of his craft. He never cheated and was true to his humanistic ideals.

Mikhail Bulgakov was born on May 3 (15), 1891 in the family of associate professor (since 1902 - professor) of the Kyiv Theological Academy Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov (1859-1907) and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna (nee Pokrovskaya) (1869-1922) on Vozdvizhenskaya Street , 28 in Kyiv.

The writer's father, Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, was indeed a professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy. But he received the title of ordinary professor in 1906, shortly before his early death. And then, in the year of the birth of his first son, he was a young associate professor at the academy, a man of very great talent and equally great ability to work.

He knew languages - both ancient and new. He spoke English, which was not included in the programs of theological seminaries and theological academies. He had a lively, light style, and he wrote a lot and with enthusiasm.

An associate professor and then professor of the history of Western faiths, he was especially keen on Anglicanism, perhaps because Anglicanism - with its historical opposition to Catholicism - was considered akin to Orthodoxy. This gave A.I. Bulgakov the opportunity not to denounce, but to study history English Church. One of his articles was translated in England and met with friendly responses there; he was proud of it.

In the obituaries of his death, his colleagues at the theological academy did not forget to mention that the deceased was a man of “strong faith.” He was a decent man and very demanding of himself, and, since he served in the theological academy, he was, of course, a believer. But I did not choose spiritual education at the behest of my heart. He, who came from a provincial and large family of a priest, and also a priest of one of the poorest in Russia, the Oryol province, had no other paths to education, like his brothers.

Children of the clergy could receive spiritual education for free. Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov graduated from the Theological Seminary in Orel brilliantly, was not recommended, but was “intended” for further study at the Theological Academy, in connection with which he signed the following mandatory document:

“I, the undersigned, a student of the Oryol Theological Seminary Afanasy Bulgakov, intended by the board of the seminary to be sent to the Kyiv Theological Academy, gave this signature to the board of the said seminary that upon arrival at the academy I undertake not to refuse admission to it, and upon completion of the course - from entering the ecclesiastical school service.” After which he received all the necessary “passing allowances and daily allowances for travel, as well as for acquiring linen and shoes.”

He also graduated brilliantly from the Theological Academy in Kyiv. On the back of his diploma is the following text - partly typographical, partly handwritten: “The student named in this document from August 15, 1881 to August 15, 1885 was in the academy on government pay, for which he ... is obliged to serve in the spiritual and educational department for six years ... and in case of leaving this department ... he must return the amount used for his maintenance...” - a three-digit amount is entered.

He brilliantly defended his master's thesis (“Essays on the History of Methodism,” Kyiv, 1886), receiving the title of associate professor.

The career of a teacher at the Theological Academy - associate professor, extraordinary, then ordinary professor - was honorable. But he did not want this career for his sons and firmly sought to give his children a secular education.

In 1890, A.I. Bulgakov married a young teacher of the Karachevskaya gymnasium, the daughter of an archpriest, Varvara Mikhailovna Pokrovskaya.

It is difficult to say whether her father, the writer’s other grandfather, Archpriest of the Kazan Church in the city of Karachev (the same Oryol province) Mikhail Vasilyevich Pokrovsky, had more money, or whether he was simply more educated, younger, more promising - he gave his children a secular education.

Judging by the fact that Varvara Mikhailovna, at the age of twenty, was a “teacher and matron” of a girls’ gymnasium (which position was proudly noted in her marriage certificate by the archpriest who personally married his daughter to an associate professor at the Kyiv Academy), most likely she graduated from the gymnasium and, maybe perhaps the eighth, additional, “pedagogical” class, which gave the title of teacher. For her generation and for her environment, she was an exceptionally educated woman. Her two brothers - Mikhail and Nikolai - studied at the university and became doctors.

The Bulgakovs' children - seven, almost the same age - grew up one after another, strong boys and beautiful, confident girls: Mikhail (1891-1940), Vera (1892-1972), Nadezhda (1893-1971), Varvara (1895-1954), Nikolai (1898-1966), Ivan (1900-1969) and Elena (1902-1954).

The Bulgakov family at the dacha. Sitting from left to right: Vanya, D.I. Bogdazhevsky, V.M. Bulgakova, A.I. Bulgakov, Lelya. Standing: Vera, Unknown, Varya, Misha, Nadya. Bucha, 1906

At the end of the 20s, Mikhail Bulgakov told P.S. Popov: “...The image of a lamp with a green lampshade. This is very important image. It arose from childhood impressions - the image of my father writing at the table.” I think the lamp under the green lampshade on my father’s desk often burned past midnight...

The world of the Bulgakov family was strong and joyful. And friends loved to visit this house, and relatives loved to visit. The mother made the family atmosphere joyful, even festive.

“Mom, bright queen,” the eldest son called her. Blonde, with very light (like her son’s) eyes, pleasantly plump after seven births and at the same time very active, lively (according to her daughter Nadezhda, Varvara Mikhailovna, having already been widowed, willingly played tennis with her almost adult children), she ruled her small kingdom well, a supportive, adored, kind queen with a soft smile and an unusually strong, even domineering character.

Attention to creative heritage M. Bulgakov is now huge: his books have been published in millions of copies, 10-volume and 5-volume collected works have appeared, the Gorky Institute of World Literature has announced the preparation of an academic collected works, the writer’s works are being filmed, staged, his plays are shown in many theaters, dozens of books and thousands of articles are devoted to the work and life of the Master - M. Bulgakov.

Children's and teenage years Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was held in Kyiv. Here he was born on May 15, 1891 in the family of Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov, a teacher at the Kyiv Theological Academy, and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna. After him, two more sons and four daughters appeared in the family: Vera (1892), Nadezhda (1893), Varvara (1895), Nikolai (1898), Ivan (1900), Elena (1901).

M. Bulgakov’s classmate, writer Konstantin Paustovsky, recalled: “The Bulgakov family was well known in Kyiv - a huge, extensive, thoroughly intelligent family... Outside the windows of their apartment, the sounds of a piano,... the voices of young people, running, laughing, arguing and singing were constantly heard. ...were a decoration of provincial life."

In 1907, his father, Afanasy Ivanovich, died, but the Academy obtained a pension for the Bulgakov family, and the material basis of life was quite strong.

After graduating from high school in 1909, M. Bulgakov entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. While studying at the university, in 1913 he married Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa (daughter of the manager of the Treasury Chamber in Saratov).

He graduated from the university in 1916. After several months of service as a hospital doctor, he was sent to the Nikolsk zemstvo hospital in the Smolensk province, and a year later he was transferred to Vyazma, to the city zemstvo hospital as the head of the infectious diseases and venereology department; According to his superiors, “he has proven himself to be an energetic and tireless worker.”

In February 1918, M. Bulgakov returned to Kyiv, where he opened a private medical practice; here he experienced a number of coups: white, red, German, Petliura. This Kyiv year of Bulgakov was later reflected in his novel The White Guard.

In the fall of 1919, he was mobilized by the Volunteer Army and ended up in North Caucasus, becomes a military doctor of the Terek Cossack Regiment.

In December of the same year, he left service in the hospital, with the arrival of the Bolsheviks he began working as a journalist in local newspapers, head of the literary department (Lito) of the arts department of the Vladikavkaz Revolutionary Committee, gives reports, gives lectures, teaches at the People's Drama Studio of Vladikavkaz, writes several plays and stages them at the local theater.

In 1921 it began new period in the life of M. Bulgakov - Moscow. In September 1921, a journalist, aspiring playwright and writer arrived in Moscow - without money, but with great hopes.

He worked for some time in the Moscow Lito (Literary Department of the Main Political Education of the People's Commissariat of Education) as a secretary, collaborated in various newspapers, and since 1922 he worked in the railway newspaper "Gudok" as a full-time feuilletonist. In total, during the years 1922-1926, he published more than 120 reports, essays and feuilletons in Gudok.

In 1925, M. Bulgakov married Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya.

In 1932 with L.E. Belozerskaya divorced and married Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya.

Bulgakov realized that he was a journalist, a reporter against his will; he grew more confident that his path was different—fine literature.

The writer's fame was brought to him by his satirical stories in the first half of the 1920s - "The Diaboliad" (1923) and " Fatal eggs"(1924). The third part of the satirical "trilogy" - the story "Heart of a Dog" (written in 1925) - was not published during the author's lifetime. In May 1926, Bulgakov was searched, as a result of which the manuscript of the story was confiscated “Heart of a Dog” and diary. In the 1920s and 30s, “Notes on Cuffs” (1923), an autobiographical cycle “Notes” were written. young doctor"(1925-1926) - about work in the Zemstvo Smolensk hospital, the biographical story "The Life of Monsieur de Moliere" (1932), "Theatrical Novel (Notes of a Dead Man)" (1937), "To a Secret Friend" (published in 1987) .

A real great success, fame came with the novel "The White Guard" (1925-1927) and the play "Days of the Turbins" (1926), in the center of which is the fate of the intelligentsia in the Russian revolution. M. Bulgakov’s position as a writer is evidenced by the words from his speech on February 12, 1926 at the debate “Literary Russia”: “It’s time for the Bolsheviks to stop looking at literature from a narrow utilitarian point of view and it is necessary, finally, to give place in their magazines to the real “living word” and “a living writer.” We must give the writer the opportunity to write simply about a “person,” and not about politics.”

M. Bulgakov’s talent was equally subject to both prose and drama (which is not often found in literature): he is the author of a number of works that have become classics of drama: the dramatic pamphlet “Crimson Island” (1927), the plays “Running” (1928) , "Adam and Eve" (1931), "Bliss" ("The Dream of Engineer Rhine") (1934), "The Last Days (Pushkin)" (1935), drama "The Cabal of the Saint (Molière)" (1936), comedy "Ivan Vasilievich" (1936), plays "Batum" (1939). M. Bulgakov also wrote dramatizations of literary works: based on the poem by N.V. Gogol " Dead Souls"(1930), based on the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace" (1932), based on the novel by Cervantes "Don Quixote".

In the second half of the 1920s and in the 1930s, M. Bulgakov was known mainly as a playwright, some of his plays were staged in theaters, but most were banned - in 1929, the Main Repertoire Committee removed all of M. Bulgakov’s plays from the repertoire. By the end of the 1930s, aspiring writers perceived Bulgakov as a writer already forgotten, lost somewhere in the 1920s, probably dead. The writer himself spoke about such a case.

The difficult situation, the inability to live and work in the USSR prompted M. Bulgakov on March 28, 1930 to address a letter to the Government of the USSR (hereinafter this is famous in history Soviet literature the letter is quoted in abbreviation):

"I address the Government of the USSR with the following letter:

1. After all my works were banned, among many citizens to whom I am known as a writer, voices began to be heard giving me the same advice.

Compose a “communist play” (I quote quotes in quotation marks), and in addition, contact the USSR Government with a letter of repentance, containing a renunciation of my previous views, expressed by me in literary works, and the assurance that from now on I will work as a fellow traveler writer devoted to the idea of communism.

Goal: to escape persecution, poverty and inevitable death in the finale.

I did not listen to this advice. It is unlikely that I would have been able to appear before the Government of the USSR in a favorable light by writing a deceitful letter, which was an untidy and, moreover, naive political curbet. I didn’t even attempt to compose a communist play, knowing in advance that such a play would not work out.

The desire that has matured in me to stop my writing torment forces me to turn to the Government of the USSR with a truthful letter.

2. Having analyzed my album clippings, I discovered 301 reviews about me in the USSR press over ten years of my literary work. Of these: there were 3 commendable ones, 298 were hostile and abusive.

The last 298 are a mirror image of my writing life.

The hero of my play “Days of the Turbins,” Alexei Turbin, was called in print in poetry “a son of a bitch,” and the author of the play was recommended as “obsessed with dog old age.”<…>

They wrote “about Bulgakov, who was and will remain what he was, a new bourgeois brat, sprinkling poisoned but powerless saliva on the working class and its communist ideals” (“Koms. Pravda”, 14/X-1926).<…>

And I declare that the USSR press is absolutely right.<…>

3. I did not express these thoughts in a whisper in the corner. I enclosed them in a dramatic pamphlet and staged this pamphlet on stage. The Soviet press, standing up for the General Repertoire Committee, wrote that “Crimson Island” was a libel on the revolution. This is frivolous babble. There is no lampoon about the revolution in the play for many reasons, of which, due to lack of space, I will point out one: a lampoon about the revolution, due to its extreme grandeur, is impossible to write. A pamphlet is not a libel, and the General Repertoire Committee is not a revolution.<…>

4. This is one of the features of my creativity, and it alone is absolutely enough for my works not to exist in the USSR. But with the first feature in connection with all the others that appear in my satirical stories: black and mystical colors (I am a mystical writer), which depict the countless deformities of our life, the poison with which my language is saturated, deep skepticism regarding the revolutionary process taking place in my backward country, and contrasting it with the beloved and Great Evolution, and most importantly - the depiction of the terrible features of my people, those features that long before the revolution caused the deepest suffering of my teacher M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.<…>

5. And, finally, my last features in the ruined plays - “Days of the Turbins”, “Running” and in the novel “The White Guard”: a persistent portrayal of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country. In particular, the depiction of an intellectual-noble family, by the will of an immutable fate, thrown into the camp of the White Guard during the Civil War, in the traditions of “War and Peace”. Such an image is quite natural for a writer who is closely connected with the intelligentsia.

But such images lead to the fact that their author in the USSR, along with his heroes, receives - despite his great efforts to become dispassionately above the Reds and Whites - a certificate of a White Guard enemy, and having received it, as everyone understands, he can consider himself finished person in the USSR.

6. Mine literary portrait finished, and it is also a political portrait. I cannot say what depth of crime can be found in it, but I ask one thing: do not look for anything beyond its boundaries. It was executed completely conscientiously.

7. Now I am destroyed.<…>

All my things are hopeless.<…>

8. I ask the Soviet Government to take into account that I am not a politician, but a writer, and that I gave all my production to the Soviet stage.<…>

9. I ask the USSR Government to order me to urgently leave the USSR, accompanied by my wife Lyubov Evgenievna Bulgakova.

10. I appeal to humanity Soviet power and I ask me, a writer who cannot be useful in his own country, to generously release him.

11. If what I wrote is unconvincing, and I am doomed to lifelong silence in the USSR, I ask the Soviet Government to give me a job in my specialty and send me to the theater to work as a full-time director.<…>

My name was made so odious that job offers on my part were met with fear, despite the fact that in Moscow a huge number of actors and directors, and with them theater directors, are well aware of my virtuoso knowledge of the stage.<…>

I ask to be appointed as a laboratory assistant-director at the 1st Art Theater - the best school, headed by the masters K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.

If I am not appointed director, I am applying for a full-time position as an extra. If being an extra isn’t an option, I’m applying for the position of stagehand.

If this is also impossible, I ask the Soviet Government to deal with me as it sees fit, but to do it somehow, because I, a playwright who wrote 5 plays, known in the USSR and abroad, have, in at the moment, - poverty, street and death.

The response was expected with excitement and yet unexpected for the writer - a call from I.V. Stalin on April 18, 1930.

This was an unexpected question. But Mikhail Afanasyevich quickly answered: “I thought a lot about this, and I realized that a Russian writer cannot exist outside his homeland.” Stalin said: “I think so too. Well then, will you go to the theater?” - “Yes, I would like to.” - “Which one?” - “To the Artistic. But they don’t accept me there.” Stalin said: “You submit your application again. I think you will be accepted.” About half an hour later, a call came from Art Theater. Mikhail Afanasyevich was invited to work" 1.

However, M. Bulgakov’s position did not fundamentally change; many of his works continued to remain banned; he died without seeing many of his works published.

To last days work was underway on the main book - the "sunset" novel "The Master and Margarita". On February 13, 1940, the writer dictated amendments to the text of the novel for the last time.

M. Bulgakov died on March 10, 1940 at 16:39. The urn with the writer's ashes was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.

On May 3 (May 15, new style), 1891, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was born - Russian Soviet writer, playwright and theater director. Author of novels, novellas, short stories, feuilletons, plays, dramatizations, film scripts and opera librettos.

Childhood and youth

Mikhail Bulgakov was born into the family of professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov (1859-1907) and his wife Varvara Mikhailovna (nee Pokrovskaya) (1869-1922) at 28 Vozdvizhenskaya Street in Kyiv. The Bulgakov family had seven children: Mikhail (1891-1940), Vera (1892-1972), Nadezhda (1893-1971), Varvara (1895-1954), Nikolai (1898-1966), Ivan (1900-1969) and Elena (1902-1954).

Since childhood, Mikhail Bulgakov was distinguished by his artistry and love of theatrical productions. The family often staged home performances; Mikhail was the author of humorous vaudeville plays and comic skits. In 1909, he graduated from the Kyiv First Gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. On October 31, 1916, Bulgakov received a diploma confirming “the degree of doctor with honors with all the rights and benefits assigned to this degree by the laws of the Russian Empire.”

The future writer chose the profession of a doctor solely for material reasons. After the death of his father, he remained the eldest man in the family. True, his mother married for the second time, but Mikhail’s relationship with his stepfather, unlike his younger brothers and sisters, did not work out. He strived, above all, for financial independence. In addition, at the time of graduating from university, Bulgakov was already a married man.

Medical student Bulgakov married Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa (1892-1982) in 1913. Some relatives of M.A. Bulgakov (in particular, the husband of his sister Varvara, Leonid Karum) subsequently reproached him for the fact that his first marriage, like his choice of profession, was also dictated by selfish calculations. Tatyana Lappa turned out to be the “general’s daughter” (her father was an actual state councilor). However, L. Karum had every reason to be biased towards his famous relative: Bulgakov brought him into the role negative character(Colonel Talberg in the novel “The White Guard” and the play “Days of the Turbins”).

According to the recollections of Tatyana Lappa herself, the Bulgakovs’ financial difficulties began on their wedding day:

“Of course, I didn’t have any veil, nor a wedding dress - I had to do with all the money that my father sent. Mom came to the wedding and was horrified. I had a pleated linen skirt, my mother bought a blouse. Father Alexander married us... For some reason they laughed terribly under the aisle. We rode home after church in a carriage. There were few guests at dinner. I remember there were a lot of flowers, most of all daffodils...”

Tatyana's father sent her 50 rubles a month (a decent amount at that time). But the money in their wallet quickly dissolved, since Bulgakov did not like to save and was a man of impulse. If he wanted to take a taxi with his last money, he decided to take this step without hesitation.

“Mother scolded me for my frivolity. We come to her for dinner, she sees - neither my rings nor my chain. “Well, that means everything is in the pawnshop!” recalled T.N. Lappa.

After the outbreak of World War I, M. Bulgakov worked as a doctor in the front-line zone for several months, then was sent to work in the remote village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province. It was here that the first stories were written (“Star Rash”, “Towel with a Rooster”, etc.). In Nikolskoye, according to T. Lapp, Mikhail Afanasyevich became addicted to drugs. At the beginning of 1917, he persistently petitioned his superiors for a transfer to a larger locality, where his drug addiction could be hidden from prying eyes. Otherwise, Bulgakov risked losing his doctor's diploma. On September 20, 1917, Bulgakov went to work at the Vyazemsk city zemstvo hospital as head of the infectious diseases and venereal departments.

Civil war

At the end of February 1918, the Bulgakovs returned to Kyiv, settling with Mikhail’s younger brothers and sisters in their parents’ apartment. Bulgakov works as a private venereologist. By the spring of 1918, he managed to completely recover from morphine addiction, however, according to the recollections of people who knew him closely, during this period Mikhail Afanasyevich began to abuse alcohol.

The tragic events of 1918 in Kyiv and Bulgakov’s participation in them are partly reflected in his story “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Doctor” (1922) and the novel “The White Guard” (1924). On the last day of Skoropadsky’s hetmanship (December 14, 1918), doctor M.A. Bulgakov was either mobilized into his army, or volunteered as a military doctor in one of the officer detachments. The detachments, consisting of volunteer officers and cadets, as is known, were disbanded under their own responsibility by the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, General F.A. Keller. According to the memoirs of T.N. Lapp, on that day Bulgakov did not participate in any military operations, but simply came home in a cab and “said that it was all over and there would be Petliura.” Nevertheless, Doctor Turbin’s flight from the Petliurists, later described in the novel, is completely autobiographical. The writer's biographers date this episode to February 1919, when M. Bulgakov was forcibly mobilized as a military doctor into the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Petliurists were already leaving the city, and at one of the crossings Bulgakov managed to escape.

“He later said that somehow he fell behind a little, then a little more, behind a pole, behind another, and rushed to run into the alley. I ran like that, my heart was pounding, I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” recalled the wife of the writer T.N. Lappa.

At the end of August 1919, according to one version, M. A. Bulgakov was mobilized into the Red Army, again as a military doctor. On October 14-16, he returned to Kyiv and, during street battles, went over to the side of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia, becoming a military doctor of the 3rd Terek Cossack Regiment. According to the writer’s wife, Bulgakov was constantly in the city until the arrival of the Whites (August 1919). In August-September 1919, he was mobilized as a doctor into the Volunteer Army and sent to the North Caucasus. He took part in the campaign against Chechen-aul and Shali-aul against the rebel mountaineers. On November 26, 1919, Bulgakov’s famous feuilleton “Future Prospects” was published in the Grozny newspaper.

At the end of 1919 - beginning of 1920 M.A. Bulgakov worked as a doctor in a military hospital in Vladikavkaz, but in February 1920 he made his final choice in favor of literature, left medicine and became a permanent employee of the Kavkaz newspaper.

In February 1920, the Whites left Vladikavkaz. The Bulgakovs were unable to follow the retreating army: Mikhail became seriously ill with typhus. He managed to hide the fact of his service in the White Army and avoid reprisals, but subsequently Mikhail Afanasyevich repeatedly reproached his wife for not finding a way to take him out of the city. If this had happened, Bulgakov would, without a doubt, emigrate. And who knows? Perhaps Russian literature would have lost one of the brilliant prose writers and playwrights of the 20th century. It is unlikely that the emigrant Bulgakov could have succeeded as a writer in the conditions of refugee life, much less acquired such wide fame.

The beginning of the journey

Upon recovery M.A. Bulgakov goes to work at the Vladikavkaz Revolutionary Committee. He was appointed head of the section of the arts department, and staged revolutionary plays of his own composition: “Self-Defense”, “The Turbine Brothers”, “The Parisian Communards”, “Sons of the Mullah”. These productions were not particularly successful, and the playwright himself felt that he was capable of more.

On September 24, 1921, M. Bulgakov moved to Moscow. He began collaborating as a feuilletonist with the capital’s newspapers “Pravda”, “Gudok”, “Rabochiy” and the magazines “Medical Worker”, “Russia”, “Vozrozhdenie”. At the same time, he published chapters from the story “Notes on Cuffs” in the “Literary Supplement” to the emigrant newspaper “Nakanune”, published in Berlin. From 1922 to 1926 in “Gudok”, where M.A. Bulgakov at one time worked as a letter sorter; more than 120 of his reports, essays and feuilletons were published.

In 1923, M. Bulgakov joined the All-Russian Union of Writers, which was later transformed into RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers).

In 1924, at the evening of the publishing house “Nakanune,” the aspiring writer met Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya (1898-1987), who had recently returned from abroad. Soon she became the new wife of Mikhail Afanasyevich. Marriage to Belozerskaya, who had extensive connections in literary world, played the role of a necessary “step” in the career of few people famous author. According to the observations of contemporaries, the couple were not spiritually close people, but thanks to Belozerskaya and her acquaintances, Bulgakov’s most significant work at that time, the novel “The White Guard,” was published. Immediately after the release of the first part of the novel, the author received an offer from the Moscow Art Theater to write modern play. In 1925, “Days of the Turbins” appeared.

On the title page of The White Guard, as you know, Bulgakov placed a dedication to his new wife, which mortally offended T.N. Lappa. Tatyana Nikolaevna remained his faithful companion throughout all the most difficult years of illness, revolution, and civil war. She became an eyewitness and participant in the Kyiv events described in the novel, but the abandoned wife found no place either on the pages of the work or in the writer’s new Moscow life. Mikhail Afanasyevich was fully aware of his guilt towards this woman (in 1916 he insisted on an abortion, which did not allow T.N. Lappa to have any more children). After the breakup, Bulgakov repeatedly told her: “Because of you, Tasya, God will punish me.”

Success and bullying

For everything in life you have to pay. The success of the play “Days of the Turbins” at the Moscow Art Theater (1926) did not cancel the subsequent persecution and almost complete banning of Bulgakov’s works in the late 1920s. I.V. liked the play. Stalin, but in his speeches the leader agreed: “The Days of the Turbins” is “an anti-Soviet thing, and Bulgakov is not ours.” At the same time, an intense and extremely harsh criticism creativity of M. Bulgakov. According to his own calculations, over 10 years there were 298 abusive reviews and only 3 favorable ones. Among the critics were such influential officials and writers as V. Mayakovsky, A. Bezymensky, L. Averbakh, P. Kerzhentsev and many others.

At the end of October 1926, the premiere of the play “Zoyka’s Apartment” was held at the Vakhtangov Theater with great success. However, the play “Running,” dedicated to the events of the Civil War, was never allowed to be staged. Bulgakov was asked to make a number of ideological changes to its text, which he categorically rejected. In 1928-1929, “Days of the Turbins,” “Zoyka’s Apartment,” and “Crimson Island” were removed from the repertoire of the capital’s theaters.

The novel “The White Guard” and especially the play “Days of the Turbins” became widely known among the Russian emigration. However, the White emigrants did not accept the “Soviet” work of the writer. In 1929, Bulgakov conceived the idea of the novel “The Master and Margarita”. According to L.E. Belozerskaya, the first edition of the novel existed in manuscript form already in 1930. Probably, the novel was written with the prospect of its publication abroad: sharp criticism of the surrounding reality and an appeal to the theme of Jesus Christ completely excluded its appearance on the pages of the Soviet press.

When all of Bulgakov's works Soviet Russia were banned and stopped publishing, the writer was seriously planning to leave the USSR to reunite with his family (his two brothers lived abroad). In 1930, Mikhail Afanasyevich wrote to his brother Nikolai in Paris about the unfavorable literary and theatrical situation for himself and the difficult, even desperate financial situation.

Writer and Leader

Hunted and persecuted, the Soviet playwright Bulgakov also wrote a letter to the USSR Government, dated March 28, 1930, asking him to determine his fate - either to give him the right to emigrate, or to give him the opportunity to work in the Soviet country.

April 18, 1930 M.A. I.V. himself called Bulgakov. Stalin. In short telephone conversation the leader expressed sincere bewilderment at the playwright’s desire to leave the country: “What, are you really tired of us?” Bulgakov replied that he was a Russian writer and would like to work in Russia. Stalin persistently recommended that he apply to the Moscow Art Theater.

From 1930 to 1936 M.A. Bulgakov worked at the Moscow Art Theater as an assistant director. In 1932, the play “Dead Souls” staged by Bulgakov took place on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. On February 16, 1932, the play “Days of the Turbins” was resumed. In a letter to his friend P. Popov, Bulgakov reported this as follows:

Of course, the “wonderful order” was given not by the government, but by Stalin. At this time, he watched a performance at the Moscow Art Theater based on Afinogenov’s play “Fear,” which he did not like. The leader remembered Bulgakov and ordered the restoration of “Days of the Turbins” - which was immediately carried out. The performance remained on the stage of the Art Theater until June 1941. However, permission to stage Stalin’s favorite play did not extend to any theater except the Moscow Art Theater.

In the same 1932, M.A. Bulgakov finally broke up with L.E. Belozerskaya. His third wife was Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, with whom he lived for the rest of his life.

In 1934, Bulgakov asked the USSR government to grant him a two-month trip abroad “to improve his health.” Perhaps the purpose of this trip was also to offer emigrant publishing houses another version of The Master and Margarita. In 1931, due to his failed emigration, Bulgakov began to write the novel again, and researchers date its second (by no means last) edition to 1934.

But Bulgakov is refused. Comrade Stalin understood perfectly well: if Bulgakov remained abroad, the play “Days of the Turbins” would have to be removed from the repertoire. The playwright becomes “not allowed to travel abroad,” but at the same time acquires the status of “untouchable.” If Bulgakov was arrested on any charges, the leader could also lose his favorite spectacle...

In 1936, after almost five years of rehearsals, the play “The Cabal of the Saint” was released at the Moscow Art Theater. After only seven performances, the performance was banned, and Pravda published a devastating article about this “false, reactionary and worthless” play. After the article in Pravda, Bulgakov had to leave the Moscow Art Theater. He began working at the Bolshoi Theater as a librettist and translator. In 1937, M. Bulgakov worked on the libretto of “Minin and Pozharsky” and “Peter I”, while simultaneously finishing the last edition of the manuscript of “The Master and Margarita”.

It seemed that at the end of the 1930s the chances of publishing the novel in the USSR were greater than at the end of the 20s, when Bulgakov began work on it. The intensity of anti-religious propaganda decreased, and the activities of the church were reduced to zero through the efforts of the authorities. Many of Bulgakov’s critics found themselves repressed or simply left the stage. RAPP was dissolved, and Bulgakov was accepted into the new Writers' Union immediately, in June 1934. In 1937, Mikhail Alexandrovich received offers from many well-known publishing houses to write a “Soviet adventure novel.” Bulgakov refused. Only once did he decide to propose chapters from “The Master and Margarita” for publication, but the former editor of the almanac “Nedra” Angarsky (later also repressed) clearly answered: “This cannot be published.” "Why?" – Bulgakov asked, wanting to hear a reasoned answer. “It’s impossible,” Angarsky repeated, refusing any explanation.

On September 9, 1938, Bulgakov was visited by representatives of the Moscow Art Theater. They asked to forget previous grievances and write new play about Stalin. Bulgakov was ready to go to great lengths to allow his “The Master and Margarita” to be published. The play “Batum” was written in 1939, on the 60th anniversary of the leader. Of course, Bulgakov, inspired by the image of the young Stalin, could not obtain either materials for the play or access to archival documents. The events of “Batum” are based on official sources published at that time and are, for the most part, fiction. Everyone to whom Bulgakov read the play praised it (there were no brave people to criticize the work about Stalin). Stalin himself also approved of Batum, but, contrary to the author’s expectations, the play was immediately banned from publication and production without further ado. Having undertaken to write a “custom” play, the playwright had no idea that Joseph Dzhugashvili did not at all need memories of his pre-revolutionary past. The infallible Leader of the nations, no doubt, had something to hide.

Illness and death

According to the memoirs of E.S. Bulgakova (Shilovskaya), Mikhail Afanasyevich from the very beginning of their life together often spoke about his imminent death. The writer's friends and relatives perceived these conversations, rather, as just another joke: despite everything, in life Bulgakov was a cheerful person and loved practical jokes. In 1939, at the age of 48, he fell ill with nephrosclerosis. Bulgakov knew that hypertensive nephrosclerosis is a hereditary and fatal disease. A former doctor, he may have felt the first symptoms very early. At the same age, nephrosclerosis brought Mikhail Afanasyevich’s father to the grave.

M. Bulgakov's health condition quickly deteriorated, he periodically lost his sight, and continued to use morphine, prescribed to him in 1924, in order to relieve pain symptoms. During this period, the writer began a new, final edit of the novel “The Master and Margarita”. When he became completely blind, he dictated the final versions of the chapters to his wife. The edit stopped on February 13, 1940, at the words of Margarita: “So, this means that the writers are going after the coffin?”

On March 10, 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died. On March 11, a civil memorial service took place in the Union building Soviet writers. Before the memorial service, Moscow sculptor S.D. Merkurov removed the death mask from M. Bulgakov’s face.

M.A. was buried. Bulgakov at the Novodevichy cemetery. At his grave, at the request of his wife E.S. Bulgakova, a stone was installed, nicknamed “Golgotha”, which previously lay on the grave of N.V. Gogol.

Elena Shirokova

Based on materials from the book Sokolov B. Three Lives of Mikhail Bulgakov. – M.: Ellis Luck, 1997.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, a world literary genius, was also a great doctor, a master of his craft. He never cheated and was true to his humanistic ideals.

An associate professor and later professor of the history of Western faiths, he was particularly interested in Anglicanism, perhaps because Anglicanism, with its historical opposition to Catholicism, was considered akin to Orthodoxy. This gave A.I. Bulgakov the opportunity not to denounce, but to study the history of the English church. One of his articles was translated in England and met with friendly responses there; he was proud of it.

Children of the clergy could receive spiritual education for free.Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov graduated from the Theological Seminary in Orel brilliantly, was not recommended, but “intended” for further studies at the Theological Academy, and therefore signed the following mandatory document:

Olympiada Ferapontovna Bulgakova, Bulgakov’s paternal grandmother, godmother of the writer

He brilliantly defended his master's thesis (“Essays on the History of Methodism,” Kyiv, 1886), receiving the title of associate professor.

In 1890, A.I. Bulgakov married a young teacher of the Karachevskaya gymnasium, the daughter of an archpriest, Varvara Mikhailovna Pokrovskaya.

Invitation to the wedding ball of V. M. Pokrovskaya and A. I. Bulgakov

It is difficult to say whether her father, another grandfather of the writer, Archpriest of the Kazan Church in the city of Karachev (the same Oryol province) Mikhail Vasilyevich Pokrovsky, had more money, or whether he was simply more educated, younger, more promising - he gave his children a secular education.

Bell nobles. Family of Mikhail Vasilyevich Pokrovsky, Bulgakov’s grandfather

Judging by the fact that Varvara Mikhailovna, at the age of twenty, was a “teacher and matron” of a girls’ gymnasium (which position was proudly noted in her marriage certificate by the archpriest who personally married his daughter to an associate professor at the Kyiv Academy), most likely she graduated from the gymnasium and, maybe perhaps the eighth, additional, “pedagogical” class, which gave the title of teacher. For her generation and for her environment, she was an exceptionally educated woman. Her two brothers, Mikhail and Nikolai, studied at the university and became doctors.

The salary of an assistant professor at the academy was small, and in parallel with teaching at the academy, my father also had another job: at first he taught history at the institute noble maidens, then, from 1893 until the end of his days, he served in the Kyiv censorship. He also did not refuse the smaller earnings that happened.

The Bulgakov family at the dacha. Sitting from left to right: Vanya, D.I. Bogdazhevsky, V.M. Bulgakova, A.I. Bulgakov, Lelya. Standing: Vera, Unknown, Varya, Misha, Nadya. Bucha, 1906

At the end of the 20s, Mikhail Bulgakov told P.S. Popov: “...The image of a lamp with a green lampshade. This is a very important image for me. It arose from childhood impressions - the image of my father writing at the table.” I think the lamp under the green lampshade on my father’s desk often burned past midnight...

The world of the Bulgakov family was strong and joyful. And friends loved to visit this house, and relatives loved to visit. The mother made the family atmosphere joyful, even festive.

Music lived in this house. Nadezhda Afanasyevna, the writer’s sister, told me: “In the evenings, after putting the children to bed, the mother played Chopin on the piano. My father played the violin. He sang, and most often, “Our sea is unsociable.”

They loved opera very much, especially Faust, which was so popular at the beginning of the century. AND symphonic music, summer concerts in the Merchant Garden above the Dnieper, which were a huge success among the people of Kiev. Almost every spring Chaliapin came to Kyiv and certainly sang in Faust...

There were books in the house. Kind and wise books from childhood. Pushkin with his “Captain's Daughter” and Leo Tolstoy. At the age of nine, read with delight by Bulgakov and perceived by him as adventure novel"Dead Souls". Fenimore Cooper. Then Saltykov-Shchedrin.

And there also lived in the house a favorite old children's book about the Saardam carpenter. A naive book by the now firmly forgotten writer P.R. Furman, dedicated to that time in the life of Tsar Peter, when Peter worked as a ship carpenter in the Dutch city of Zaandam (Saardam). It was in the book large font and many full-page illustrations, and Peter, “the sailor and the carpenter,” Peter, the worker on the throne, appeared in it as approachable and kind, cheerful and strong, with hands equally good at using both carpentry and, if necessary, surgical instruments, and pen statesman, legendary, fabulous, beautiful Peter.

“How often I read “The Carpenter of Saardam” by the glowing tiled square,” Bulgakov would write in “The White Guard.” The book became a sign of the house, part of the invariably repeating childhood. Then, in Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard,” the Saardam Carpenter will become a symbol of the hearth, eternal, like life itself.

Childhood and adolescence in the memory of Mikhail Bulgakov forever remained as a serene and carefree world. This is his word: “carefree.”

“In the spring, the gardens bloomed white, the Tsar’s Garden was dressed in greenery, the sun broke through all the windows, igniting fires in them. And the Dnieper! And the sunsets! And the Vydubetsky Monastery on the slopes, the green sea ran down in ledges to the colorful, gentle Dnieper... The times when a carefree young generation lived in the gardens of the most beautiful city of our homeland” (essay “Kyiv-Gorod”, 1923).

“...And spring, spring and roar in the halls, schoolgirls in green aprons on the boulevard, chestnut trees and May, and, most importantly, the eternal beacon ahead - the university...” (“The White Guard”).

The glow of home and childhood colored time in serene tones in the writer’s memories. But the time was neither calm nor serene.

Who is Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov? Great writer, satirist, playwright, director and actor. It is very difficult to summarize Bulgakov's biography. Bulgakov, whose interesting facts of life are difficult to describe briefly, is worthy of respect and memory of posterity. Let's look at his biography in a little more detail than what is written on the pages of Wikipedia.

From his pen came an incredible number of dramatizations, plays, stories, opera librettos, film scripts and stories. For many people, this man still remains a mystical mystery, mainly thanks to his incomparable works, such as “The Master and Margarita” and many others. Now we will try to understand in more detail the biography of the writer.

The writer's childhood

Life and work of Bulgakov originates from May 3 (15), 1891. The child was very beautiful and had a memorable appearance. Blue bottomless eyes and a thin figure perfectly emphasized Mikhail’s artistry. Since childhood, the boy was very interested, if not in love, with literature. One of the first large works I read young Mikhail, there was a book “Notre Dame Cathedral” by Victor Hugo. At that time the boy was only eight years old. And even earlier, at the age of seven, his first work came out of his childhood hand - the story “The Adventures of Svetlana.”

The father of the future writer was an associate professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy, and his mother taught at the Karachay Progymnasium. Mikhail Afanasyevich was the eldest child in a large family. The writer had four sisters - Varvara, Lena, Vera and Nadezhda, and two brothers - Kolya and Vanya.

Little Misha's family was from hereditary bell nobles; their ancestors were priests and served in the Oryol province.

Education of Mikhail Bulgakov

At the age of eighteen, Mikhail Afanasyevich graduated from the First Kyiv Gymnasium, after which he entered the Faculty of Medicine at Kiev University. His choice was influenced by the fact that most of his relatives worked in the medical field and lived quite well.

Interesting fact. Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov had an uncle N.M. Pokrovsky, who worked as a gynecologist in Moscow and was a very respected and experienced doctor. It was in his image that Professor Preobrazhensky was described.

Bulgakov was a rather withdrawn, secretive person who did not like to talk about personal matters and suffered from frequent neuroses. Perhaps such misfortunes as premature death father (he died at forty-eight due to serious kidney inflammation) and the suicide of his close friend Boris Bogdanov due to non-reciprocal love for the master’s sister, Varvara Bulgakova.

First wedding

This wedding would be a great subject for a movie. On April twenty-sixth, 1913, M. A. Bulgakov married Tatyana Lappa. Mikhail at that time was twenty-two years old, and his chosen one was a year younger than his beloved.

Tatyana was not from a poor family, and she should have had enough money for a wedding dress, but on the wedding day, the bride stood in front of the altar in a dress skirt and blouse, which her indignant mother managed to buy just before the ceremony.

But, in spite of everything, according to eyewitnesses, it was one of the most happy weddings. There was a lot of joy and laughter.

Later, Tatyana recalled that Bulgakov was a wasteful person who did not know how to manage finances rationally. He was not afraid to spend his last money on a taxi if he had a desire to ride around the city.

The bride's mother was not happy with her son-in-law. If she saw that another piece of jewelry was missing from her daughter, it was immediately clear that it had already been pawned at the pawnshop.

Medical talent of the writer

M.A. Bulgakov was a surprisingly talented doctor. He received at least forty people a day. But fate was not particularly favorable to his aspirations. Mikhail Afanasyevich was very susceptible to various diseases.

Passion for drugs

In 1917 Bulgakov became infected with diphtheria. To get rid of the disease, the writer takes the serum, as a result of which he begins to have a severe allergic reaction, accompanied by severe pain.

To get rid of the torment, Mikhail begins to inject himself with morphine, and then simply becomes addicted to it.

Faithful Tatyana Lappa heroically helps him escape from drug captivity. She consciously reduced the administered dose of the drug, replacing it with distilled water. It was very difficult, because the writer more than once attempted to kill his beloved; once, he threw a hot Primus stove at Tatyana, and also threatened her with a pistol more than once. The girl reacted to this with angelic calm, justifying such actions by the fact that the writer did not want to harm her, he just felt very bad.

Life without morphine

Thanks to the great efforts of the betrothed, in 1918 Mikhail Afanasyevich stops taking morphine. In the same year, his studies with Pokrovsky, his uncle on his mother’s side, ended. Bulgakov returns to Kyiv as a venereologist.

First World War

When did the first one begin? world war Bulgakov worked as a doctor near the front, but soon he was mobilized into the army of the UPR (Ukrainian People's Republic), and then to the south of Russia, where Mikhail Afanasyevich was appointed doctor of the third Terek Cossack regiment, as part of this regiment he visited the north of the Caucasus and managed work as a doctor for the Red Cross Society.

In 1920, the writer fell ill with typhus, and therefore was forced to remain in the Caucasus. At the same time, he was published in newspapers and began to write drama. In a letter to his cousin, Bulgakov says that he found what he should have been doing for four years now - writing.

In honor of Bulgakov’s great works, there was even a memorial plaque placed on the building of the regional hospital in Chernivtsi (Ukraine), where he worked as a surgeon.

Writer's career

In 1921 Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov moves to Moscow, where he begins to make a living by writing feuilletons for many famous, and not so famous, newspapers and magazines, such as:

Horn;
Russia;
Worker;
Red magazine for everyone;
Revival;
Medical worker.

Some statistics. From 1922 to 1926, more than 120 feuilletons were published in the Gudok newspaper, essays and articles by M.A. Bulgakov.

Bulgakov joins the All-Russian Union of Writers (1923), where he meets Lyubov Belozerskaya, who already in 1925 becomes the writer's second wife.

In October 1926 The Moscow Art Theater staged the production “Days of the Turbins” with dizzying success, which was especially popular even with Stalin. The leader said that this was an anti-Soviet thing, and Bulgakov was “not ours,” but at the same time he attended the performance of the production about fifteen times. True, except at the Moscow Art Theater, the production was not staged anywhere else.

In 1929, the writer met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, she became the third and last wife of the writer in 1932.

Persecution of Bulgakov

A successful career did not gratify one’s self-esteem for long brilliant writer. Already in 1930, Bulgakov’s works ceased to be published, productions were subject to bans.

From this moment on, the writer begins to have a difficult financial situation. In the same year, Bulgakov wrote to his brother in Paris about his problems. He also sends a letter to I. Stalin himself, saying in it that the leader must determine his future, either allow him to go abroad, or give him the opportunity to earn his living in home country.

Almost a month later, Stalin himself called Bulgakov and advised him to contact the Moscow Art Theater with a request for a job.

At the Moscow Art Theater, the writer was hired as an assistant director, and five years later he played a role in the play “ Pickwick Club».

The play “The Kabbalah of the Holy One” was rehearsed for five years and was a huge success in 1936, but after seven performances, an article was published in the Pravda newspaper, criticizing the production to the nines. After this, Bulgakov left the Moscow Art Theater and got a job at the Bolshoi Theater as a librettist and translator.

In 1939, Bulgakov was preparing to stage the play “Batum,” dedicated to I. Stalin, but just before the premiere a telegram arrived saying that Stalin was prohibiting the production because he considered a play about himself inappropriate.

Death of a Writer

After this, M. Bulgakov’s health deteriorated sharply, he stopped seeing, doctors diagnosed kidney inflammation. The writer starts taking morphine again to relieve pain.

At the same time, the wife of E. S. Bulgakov, under the dictation of her husband, completes the last and final version"The Master and Margarita".

The writer died on March 10, 1940. At that time he was only 49 years old. M. A. Bulgakov was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery; at his grave, at the request of the writer’s wife, a tombstone from the grave of N. V. Gogol, which would later be called “Golgotha,” was installed.

Works of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov

For your own is inadmissible short life The writer managed to leave an invaluable literary contribution to his descendants. The name of such a great writer cannot be forgotten, and manuscripts, as we know, do not burn. Here is a small list of masterpieces of the great writer: